Capital Eye Opener, Jan. 9: Major Super PAC Donor Runs Into Trouble In Texas, New House Oversight Chair and More

SIMMONS’ TEXAS PAC FINED: Last week, the Texas Ethics Commission fined a PAC owned by Harold Simmons, the Waste Control Specialists — Texas Solutions PAC (also known as TEXSOL PAC), for making illegal contributions to 18 Texas politicians (15 Republicans and three Democrats).

In Texas, general-purpose PACs that have fewer than 10 unique donors may not make donations larger than $500, according to Texas Election Code. But, the donations that the PAC made to the 18 politicians ranged from $1,000 to $10,000, for a total of nearly $65,000 — and at the time, Simmons was the only donor. The lawmakers returned the cash and the PAC immediately paid the $6,450 fine, according to a Texas Tribune report.

In addition to owning state-based PACs, Dallas-based billionaire Simmons is also one of the top spenders in federal elections. He donated $100,000 to the Americans for Rick Perry PAC through Waste Control Specialists in 2011, according to Center for Responsive Politics research. Simmons and his wife, Annette, are second in terms of contributions by individuals to outside spending groups, combining to donate almost $27 million in the last election. By far, the biggest recipient of Simmons’ largesse was American Crossroads, which received more than $20 million from him.

WATCHING THE WATCHDOG: Rep. Tim Murphy, the new chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will wield a potentially powerful gavel over the broad range of issues within the panel’s portfolio. That includes the Affordable Care Act, which he opposed.

And just as the issues he’ll be dealing with aren’t new to him, the players in the industries he’ll be watching are pretty familiar to the Pennsylvania Republican, as well.

Murphy may be watching his back: He almost faced a serious onslaught from the conservative Club for Growth as well as the Campaign for Primary Accountability, both of which ran ads against him when it looked as though a tea party conservative might be a credible primary challenger in his Pittsburgh-area district. That fizzled, but still Murphy spent nearly $2.6 million over the course of his 2012 campaign, about $1 million more than he’d spent just two years earlier.

STOPPING THE POT: Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) has established an advocacy group, Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), to lobby against the legalization of marijuana.

His group could spur the other side of the debate to ramp up its activities in Washington. Both the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Marijuana Policy Project have been fairly quiet presences in town; most of the action on their issues has been in the states, including recent ballot initiatives. NORML contributed just $3,500 to federal candidates in the 2012 cycle, and didn’t lobby at the federal level in 2011 or the first three-quarters of 2012. The Policy Project gave $18,850 and spent $8,000 on lobbying in 2011, but hadn’t lobbied in 2012 through Sept. 30.

In fact, neither group has ever given less in an election cycle, except in 2008 when NORML donated slightly less than it did this time around.

The newer Medical Marijuana Industry Group has had a slightly more robust lobbying presence, spending $15,000 in 2011 and $45,000 in the first three-quarters of last year.

Previous attempts to end the 76-year-old federal criminalization of weed have gone nowhere. But Kennedy’s group, like those favoring legalization, will likely devote more of its attention to the states for now, including Colorado and Washington state, which voted in November to legalize marijuana.

Project SAM’s board of directors also includes former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum, and Kevin Sabet, who was a senior adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy from 2009 to 2011.

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